Please recognize that I know nothing about Linux, and nearly as little about computers. Your help is most welcome and appreciated.

I recently tried to boot Puppy Linux (the Slack Version with Mozilla). It is failing repeatedly from CD-ROM. I want to boot from CD-ROM to confirm that this OS will work on my old, HP Omnibook XE2 DC (with 256 M of RAM and a 5 GB hard drive that is primarily occupied by Windows 98SE, a situation that won't change.)

I get the following error when I try to boot from the ISO image that I burned on a CD-ROM:

Loading initrd.gz... isolinux: Diskerror 01, AX = 4280, drive 9F

(or something like that. Hard to read the note I wrote.)

I have a few questions:

1. I found the version of "Puppy Linux" at the HTML address below.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20L ... elease.htm .

The ISO size is around 162 MB. Is that too large for a system with 256 MB of RAM? What is causing this disk error? (I downloaded to my Android from a distant server, because I only have slow dial-up.)

2. I'm not averse to booting from my CD-ROM drive, and storing data or files on a USB stick. (I would like to confirm that the Linux I load will work on my computer and not be ridiculously slow before I commit to a hard drive partition and "permanent" installation on a mutli-boot system.) My only concern with the CD-ROM boot approach is that I have to use a PCMCIA card USB 2.0 adder card to have USB 2.0 service on this Omnibook XE2. I simply leave the USB 2.0 card in the PCMCIA slot. I can then easily insert a little WIFI antenna in the USB 2.0 port and use WIFI hotspots on the road. This is very useful for me. (Also the reason I bought the cheap Android tablet, when my old laptop would no longer run anti-virus programs kept up to date due to the age of its Windows OS, and the new browsers would no longer work, making it painfully slow to load web pages.) If I boot from a CD-ROM with a fixed image, will the Puppy Linux still let me use the WIFI stick in the USB 2.0 port? (How would a fixed system on a CD-ROM produced from an image file know to load the WIFI stick drivers? - Like I said. Computers are not my field, so I may have this all wrong.) Note: I've already got the downloaded, Puppy Dog Linux ISO's for the Slackware variant with Mozilla as the browser on my Android tablet. I burned it with InfraRecorder to a CD and to try it out. I understand that the CD ROM load will be slower than a load from a hard drive, so the issue of responsiveness and related stability may arise in terms of whether I continue with the CD ROM load or seek a Windows 98SE compatible partition manager for free somewhere on the internet, that will also let me back up my old hard drive.

3. Is there a very user friendly partition program that would run under Windows 98 that would not cause me to lose Windows 98 if I start re-partitioning the hard drive? (This system came with Windows 98 pre-installed from HP as a refurbished computer.) I'm thinking of using the free version of HDClone. I wouldn't necessarily mind partitioning a few hundred Meg of my 5 GB hard drive for a Linux boot and simply storing data on a USB stick if this is what is required to get around the "restore partition" originally installed with Windows 98 (which I would like to keep). Note that the same link above shows an installation for Puppy Linux that creates a dual boot system (much as was done by Windows XP when I upgraded my desktop from Windows 98SE).

4. I have another, old computer coming in the mail. It was pre-loaded with Windows ME. I purchased it inexpensively recently. My intent is to try out Linux and Haiku by partitioning the hard drive and running the system as a dual-boot.

Can you please advise me in this regard?

5. I've been advised to download Quielitu from Softpedia.com and trash Puppy Linux as being too large and incompatible with old laptops.

6. Any other insights, comments, or helpful suggestions would certainly be appreciated.

My mother died tonight of a heart attack. I was in the ER room watching them do CPR with no response, and a doctor telling me that these are hard times, and prolonging the resuscitation effort wasn't doing anyone any good (quite a charming fellow).

I'd rented four feature length videos to watch with her this weekend, because she'd complained that I was spending too little time with her.

Lately that was probably true. I just HAD to find a way to get Linux to boot up my old Omnibook XE2, so I could access the internet and pretend, once again, to be computer tech savvy (a factor I'd concluded was less than relevant to life for most people, including myself, long ago).

Eager to fool myself into believing that I could ascend the ladder of internet and computer insight, and seeking the old reward of toys that would do things that were impressive, or that their age was supposed to prevent (like running new web browsers with security), I spent the week burning ISO's that would not boot to USB sticks, installing "PLop" (and finding that it would not work on my system), then burning more ISO's to CD ROM drives, all the time getting error messages when loading the new OS.

Just before my mother screamed for me to take her to the doctor tonight. (Sorry, it's last night now, a few hours have passed.) To prevent anyone else from wasting their time, I found what was keeping me from paying her more attention this past week.

1. Loading the Mozilla linked variation on "Slack" Puppy Linux wouldn't work, even when I slowed the CD-ROM write speed to reduce the potential for error.

2. Only the Opera linked variation on "Slack" Puppy Linux, among the latest downloads, would load properly on a system with 256 MB of RAM (even if I do have to actually click on the buttons of the touch pad once again, rather than merely tapping the pad, to induce the relevant response from Linux). I decided to slow the recording speed down as well when burning the CD-Rom.

Moral? Rent and watch a few videos with your mom when it first occurs to you. Don't wait until she has a heart attack and dies, and with red eyes, at 3:00 AM, leave a post like this one.

PupNog, please accept my sincere condolences. Loosing your mother is a terrible experience. I still have mine, but I have been bedside through her 5 heart attacks so far, so I do have some knowledge of what has gone through your mind the last couple of days.

There are few words that can be of comfort to you right now, but please believe that the fact that you were there, was a great comfort to her in her last moments. Sadly, there is never enough time to spend it together with those who want your company, so please do not feel guilty about that.

Please take your time without thinking about computers for a while, and then come back to us here in the forum when you feel for it.

May your mother rest in peace.

tallboy_________________True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

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